The annual global trade in illegitimate goods is about $US 600B. By 2015, the total impact of the trade in counterfeits and pirated goods—including the value of domestically sold fakes, those traded on the internet, and the added costs to society through lost taxes and jobs—is predicted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to exceed $US 1 trillion dollars. Due to increased globalization, manufacturing delocalization, sophisticated supply chains and complex distribution models, it has become more difficult for manufacturers to track products from the point of manufacture to end-user. As a result, there has been intense activity in the development of authentication methods to verify authenticity at different points in the product lifecycle, including at the consumer level.
There are many commercial methods that use lasers for tagging goods, including inkjet printing, and laser engraving and printing. These methods produce patterns of tens of micrometers in size that are easily imaged with a microscope and could easily be replicated.